Subject Area: Austria: All Topics

Roe, Ian1991 0-7734-9725-0 307 pagesProvides a general survey with the main emphasis on the thematic and dramatic content of the plays (genesis and background, structure, characters, major themes), though questions of language, style and imagery are not neglected, especially where these contribute to the play's theatrical effectiveness. This work's most important contribution to scholarship is the investigation of Grillparzer's interest in the Classical generation of writers, reflected in almost all his works, either in the form of a debt to a particular work or in the echoing of key philosophical themes of the period.

Keith-Smith, Brian1991 0-7734-1336-7 280 pagesWritten by Bristol Germanists past and present, this volume includes eleven research essays. Included are: The Babenburg Dukes; Schnüffis' Mirantisches Flötlein; Collin's Regulus; Nestroy and the Redemptorists; Alcoholism in 19th-century drama; Stifter's Bunte Sleine; Duels in Schnitzler's plays; Hofmannsthal's quatrains; Hofmannsthal's Prolog zu dem Buch `Anatol'; a Kafka notebook entry; and Contemporary Women's Writing in Austria. It also has numerous illustrations and a special preface by Professor Emeritus August Closs. Bristol Austrian Studies will appeal to all advanced readers of Austrian literature. Its critical range and stimulating subject matter are a tribute to the sustained interest in Austrian culture that characterizes the teaching and research of Bristol University's German Department.

Magnússon, Gísli2014 0-7734-4287-1 260 pagesFor the first time, the true scope and relevance into the esoteric and occult aspects of Rilke’s work is made available, to his many English-speaking readers. Dr. Magnússon reveals an alternative interpretation by focusing on Rilke’s fascination with occultism, spiritualism and parapsychology as it plays out in his work, tapping into the culturally intrinsic nature of the work, in order to lead the reader to a deeper understanding of this widely read poet.

Blamires, David1996 0-7734-1350-2 172 pagesWritten by Bristol Germanists past and present, this volume includes eleven research essays. Included are: The Babenburg Dukes; Schnüffis' Mirantisches Flötlein; Collin's Regulus; Nestroy and the Redemptorists; Alcoholism in 19th-century drama; Stifter's Bunte Sleine; Duels in Schnitzler's plays; Hofmannsthal's quatrains; Hofmannsthal's Prolog zu dem Buch `Anatol'; a Kafka notebook entry; and Contemporary Women's Writing in Austria. It also has numerous illustrations and a special preface by Professor Emeritus August Closs. Bristol Austrian Studies will appeal to all advanced readers of Austrian literature. Its critical range and stimulating subject matter are a tribute to the sustained interest in Austrian culture that characterizes the teaching and research of Bristol University's German Department.

Kallin, Britta2007 0-7734-5499-3 204 pagesExplores the representation of ethnic minorities and the construction of national identities in contemporary plays written by German and Austrian women. The study draws on approaches of cultural and postcolonial studies, African-American and other minority feminist criticism as well as Anglo-American and German feminist scholarship. The plays examined in the book include Kerstin Specht’s Lila, Elfriede Müller’s Goldener Oktober, Bettina Fless’s Asyl, Gundi Ellert’s Jagdzeit, Marlene Streeruwitz’s Bagnacavallo, and Elfriede Jelinek’s Stecken, Stab und Stangl. This book evaluates the characters in terms of visual representation, the way in which they communicate with other characters, and the characters’ involvement in the development of the play. The work demonstrates that the playwrights assign minority characters a restricted verbal capacity that limits their influence on the action of the play, thereby reducing such characters to function merely as catalysts for problems of the German and Austrian communities. The playwrights write with a well-meaning intention but some cannot avoid the trap of their position as self-appointed spokesperson while other offer new positions from where they speak and avoid reproducing stereotypes of the “Other”. This work will appeal to scholars in German studies, feminist studies and drama.

Paulson, Michael G. and Dr. Tamara Alvarez-Detrell2010 0-7734-1345-6 196 pagesAlthough many biographies and historical studies of Queen Anne exist, this work is the first to evaluate Anne of Austria as a literary figure.

Russell, Dennis Eugene2011 0-7734-1490-8 256 pagesSince 1989, Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke has earned the reputation of one of the most provocative and subversive auteurs in contemporary European art cinema. The focus of this book is Haneke's first four German-language films that represent a radical director's attempt to locate the root causes of a pervasive moral and psychological deterioration that has characterized Western culture since the latter stages of the twentieth century. Calling upon multiple theoretical approaches, this book entails a close-reading examination of Haneke's following works: The Seventh Continent (1989), Benny's Video (1992), 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994), and Funny Games (1997). These films have been selected for analysis because they encompass the major themes and philosophical concerns threading throughout Haneke's oeuvre: a nightmare vision of the First World teetering on the brink of catastrophe while awash in the excesses of advanced capitalism, obsessive consumerism, and media and technological dominance. This is not activist filmmaking in the sense of evoking change, but instead a radical cinema propelled by Haneke's aggressive methods of cultural vivisection. The book's target audiences are film scholars, graduate students in the fields of cinema analysis and critical studies, and art-cinema aficionados.